This special JEMS report also presents important experiences and operational challenges experienced by rural EMS providers in the Shanksville/Somerset County (Pa.) region on 9/11. Crew in this beautiful, quiet valley had their lives suddenly turned upside down when a terrorist overtook United Airlines Flight 93 and attempted to use it as a bomb against our government in Washington, D.C. Instead, because of the documented heroic efforts by passengers on that doomed flight, the plane was forced down into the peaceful countryside of Western Pennsylvania.
You will read about the response and aftermath of the incident on EMS responders. What many responders reported remembering most about that day is the utter shock that there was actually a plane that had crashed and that the plane crashed into unsettled Earth, which was then literally thrust into the air and completely covered the plane and its occupants. The fact that there was very little debris and even fewer pieces that appeared to be a plane left big emotional imprints on the responders who had been trained to save lives—not witness their demise in a few short seconds.
To read Out of the Darkness, Volume IV: On Stable Ground, click here.